The Philippine government may have to wait for one or two more months before it finds out if former police senior superintendent Glenn Dumlao will be extradited from the United States.

Lawyer Felix Vinluan, lawyer for Dumlao, said that based on the briefing schedule given by US district court Thomas Platt, who handles the extradition case of the former police officer, the hearings for their petition for habeas corpus with a motion to stay the extradition may take 30 to 60 days.

Vinluan added that if ever the district court decides against their petition, his client also has the option to elevate the petition to a higher court.

“It’s subject for resolution. We hope it will be decided soon, but the judge gave us the briefing schedule. Thirty to 60 days,” the lawyer said when asked by radio dzMM about the status of the petition.

The lawyer, meanwhile, clarified questions about the timing of the filing of the habeas corpus petition.
 
He said that even when the extradition case was being heard late 2008, Dumlao and the public defender handling the case had already discussed the possibility of questioning the extradition order.

However, Vinluan explained that based on US court procedures, the habeas corpus petition could not be immediately be filed right after the extradition order is issued.

“The habeas corpus petition could not be filed until after the [US] secretary of state issued the warrant to surrender,” he said, adding that the warrant was issued by Secretary Hillary Clinton’s office only in February 26.

ABS-CBN North America News Bureau learned that Vinluan initially filed a petition for habeas corpus last March 4.

Vinluan amended the petition a week later and added the motion to stay the extradition. He also asked for the court's jurisdiction over the matter. The amended petition asked Judge Platts to review the US State Department's decision to surrender Dumlao to Philippine authorities.

Avoiding torture

Vinluan said they filed the petition for habeas corpus with a motion to stay the extradition because Dumlao fears he will be subjected again to physical and psychological torture by “Philippine security forces.”

“Our prayer for Glenn Dumlao is to be released immediately on two grounds: he should not be extradited because the US government is duty bound not to extradite anybody who fears being subjected to torture,” the lawyer said. He said the second ground is US authorities’ failure to implement the extradition order within two months after it was issued.

Dumlao’s extradition order was issued by the courts last Dec. 10, 2008, a month after he was arrested by US authorities based on the request of the Philippine government for his extradition.

“It (extradition) did not happen. The order was issued Dec. 10, 2008, so it’s more than three months already,” he said.

He added that based on US court rules, the extradition order’s subject should be released after the two-month deadline.

The National Bureau of Investigation has sent a team to receive Dumlao from US authorities and bring the former police officer back to the Philippines on Sunday.

The petition filed by Dumlao’s lawyer, however, effectively aborted the scheduled extradition.

No politicians

Vinluan, meanwhile, denied that he is being paid by a Philippine politician to prevent Dumlao’s extradition.

He said Dumlao’s wife, Merlyn Cejo, is paying for his legal services.

Asked how Cejo can afford his services, Vinluan hinted he is not an expensive lawyer. He said Dumlao’s wife is working “in a household” somewhere in Long Island.

The lawyer also denied a newspaper report that Dumlao paid P100,000 cash bond to avoid extradition.

“Cash bond? That’s not true. I did not spend a single cent. All I had to do was make an oral argument,” Vinluan said.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Thursday said some people may be giving Dumlao a hand to dodge the extradition order.

Gonzalez believes there are also moves being made by the same people to prevent former police senior superintendent Cezar Mancao from returning to the Philippines and testify in the murders of publicist Salvador “Buddy” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in November 2000.

Dumlao and Mancao were officers of the Task Force Group Luzon of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, headed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Lacson and former President Joseph Estrada, in an affidavit supposedly executed by Mancao last Feburary 14, were tagged as the masterminds in the murders. -- With a report from Ging Reyes, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau